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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/world/asia/isis-messaging-app-terror-plot.html?_r=0
Not "Lone Wolves" After All: How ISIS Guides World's Terror Plots from Afar
(New York Times) Rukmini Callimachi - For 17 months, Islamic State terrorist operatives guided Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani in planning an attack in one of India's major tech hubs. From Syria, they organized the delivery of weapons as well as the precursor chemicals used to make explosives. Until just moments before the arrest of the Indian cell last June, ISIS cyberplanners kept in near-constant touch with the operatives. It was an example of what counterterrorism experts are calling enabled or remote-controlled attacks by the Islamic State whose only connection is via the Internet. Remotely-guided plots in Europe, Asia and the U.S. in recent years, including the attack on a community center in Garland, Tex., were initially labeled the work of "lone wolves," while only later was direct communication with the Islamic State discovered. Islamic State plots have been discovered in multiple locations in the U.S., including Columbus, Ohio, the suburbs of Washington and upstate New York. Since by late 2015, travel to Syria had become treacherous, the Islamic State announced last year that those who could not reach the caliphate should attack at home.